Censuring The Censors

There have been a number of different versions of the film released. The main differences have been the presence of the Princess at the climax, or not, or a scene where, before the major final battle, Conan and Subotai discuss life! Both of these scenes are in this Blu-ray version, but unfortunately our version is the UK edition which cuts out two horse falls during the climactic battle (our version is identical – I own both versions and one disc can be inserted in place of the other and the Blu-ray reads the new disc and starts it where the other one stopped). Similarly, this version slightly truncates Conan’s sex scene with the witch, removing a brief shot of her bare bottom. The previous Region 4 Special Edition DVD had these scenes intact. I have no information about the US Blu-ray. It is Region Free, but US review sites indicate only that the feature run time is 129:08, so that does not help!

Update 31/8/2011: Reader Sean Brady reports, "The full uncensored version is on this disc. All you need to do to see it is to change your player settings to another language (I chose Dutch) and then insert the disc. It will then play the uncensored version with English audio." Note that this non-UK version is more than likely still the censored US R-version, not the fully US unrated version, which has never been officially released on video. (Rod W.)